St. Rose Priory is a house of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

located near

Springfield, Kentucky Springfield is a List of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in and county seat of Washington County, Kentucky, Washington County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,846 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. History Spring ...

. It is the first foundation of that Order in the United States, and the first

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

educational institution west of the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

. The St. Rose Roman Catholic Church Complex including the

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...

, the church, and a guesthouse was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1978. With . The land for the priory was purchased by (then) Father Edward Dominic Fenwick, O.P. (later Bishop of Cincinnati) in July 1806 with money received from an inheritance. He bought an existing farm west of

. Construction began shortly thereafter, including a church, priory, and college. The college was begun in 1808 but the building was not finished until 1812. It was named Saint Thomas' College, after

St. Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...

. Its most famous student was

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

, the future president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. The church was named for St. Rose. Though not designated a cathedral, the church served in the role of a cathedral until the

Basilica of Saint Joseph Proto-Cathedral The Basilica of Saint Joseph Proto-Cathedral is a Catholic parish church at 310 West Stephen Foster Avenue in Bardstown, Kentucky. It is the original cathedral of the present Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, originally erected as the Di ...

could be built in nearby

Bardstown, Kentucky Bardstown is a home rule-class city in Nelson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 11,700 in the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Nelson County. Bardstown is named for the pioneering Bard brothers. David Bard obtained a l ...

. The church is in a stone Tudor-

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style architecture and includes an octagonal tower. The Bardstown diocese was the first diocese west of the Allegheny mountains, with its first and only bishop,

Benedict Joseph Flaget Benedict Joseph Flaget (November 7, 1763 – February 11, 1850) was a French-born Catholic bishop in the United States. He served as the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bardstown between 1808 and 1839. When the see was transferred to Loui ...

as spiritual leader of that diocese. Though not the first Catholic church building in Kentucky (this honor belonged to St. Ann in nearby Springfield, a log cabin church) the church was the first brick church in Kentucky. It is sometimes referred to as a "proto-priory".

A convent was added about 1822, an order of the Dominicans. Later this convent moved to another location in

Washington County, Kentucky Washington County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 12,027. Its county seat is Springfield, Kentucky, Springfield. The county is named ...

and founded

Saint Catharine College St. Catharine College was a small Roman Catholic liberal arts college near Springfield, Kentucky. The college was accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and had a peak enrollment of 750 stude ...

. Although Saint Thomas Aquinas College closed in 1828, the priory continued, including an education role as a seminary, novitiate, elementary and higher educational levels. The present church of St. Rose was erected in 1854. Part of the original brick church of 1809 was preserved and is now the

Eucharistic Chapel The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institu ...

. The brick was covered with a cement mixture to blend with the limestone of the newer church. The original St. Rose church remains, though much of the old priory buildings (including the college and old novitiate) were torn down in 1978. The grounds also include one of the original cemeteries in Washington County, Kentucky. Some graves date to the early 19th century.

Notes

References

External links

History of St. Rose Priory
1852 establishments in Kentucky Dominican monasteries in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Kentucky Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Roman Catholic churches in Springfield, Kentucky Roman Catholic churches completed in 1852 Tudor Revival architecture in Kentucky Gothic Revival church buildings in Kentucky {{US-RC-church-stub